It is the offering of educational programs designed to facilitate a learning strategy which does not depend on day-to-day contact teaching but makes best use of the potential of the students to study on their own. It provides interactive study material and decentralized learning facilities where students can seek academic and other forms of educational assistance when they need it (Daniels 1996).

The WVSU Office Distance Education (DEO) was established in 2002 by virtue of Board of Regents (BOR) Resolution No. 118, s. 2002. Its programs respond to the growing needs of students and professionals who desire to pursue a diploma course or a postgraduate degree but are unable to leave their homes or work stations, here or abroad, to attend regular classroom meetings.

What is the delivery mode for the UDEP programs?

The DEO gets technical support from the Management Information System (MIS) of the University and the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Center for Educational Innovation and Technology (SEAMEO-Innotech, Philippines) for the operationalization of its site. This has become fully functional for the interactive classes; that is, tutor and students meet in live chat or video conference in pre-scheduled sessions. Teaching materials, assessment modes, and students’ output are uploaded in the website except for requirements peculiar to certain courses that need to be submitted in hard copy such as learning portfolios for practicum or field study.

Save Our Future-Save Our Normal Schools (SOF-SONS) Project is an initiative of Commissioner Nenalyn P. Defensor. Being a product of Iloilo Normal School now West Visayas State University, the Commissioner hopes to mobilize Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs) to actively focus on their role in connection to the bigger scheme of the Philippine educational system.

The vision of having TEIs collaborate using their respective strengths and unique capabilities that can contribute to a much-enhanced way of addressing the literacy education of TEIs is a great possibility through this project and the SOF Advocacy Networks. This forethought paved way to the establishing of the National Network of Normal Schools in the country and identifying Champions in initiating, implementing, monitoring and evaluating endeavors that can alleviate the plight of TEIs.

Through the Centers for Teaching Excellence and/or Colleges of Education, the various Centex Network of an identified area are identified as follows:

Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) as the STEM Centex (Science, Technology Education and Mathematics);

Pangasinan State University as Centex for SOF.SORG (Save Our Future-Save our Rice Granaries); and

Philippine Normal University (PNU) as lead Teacher Education University to lead in the research on curriculum, pedagogical approaches as well as the History of Normal Schools in the Country.

What is SOF-SONS.Net?

SOF-SONS.Net is an online portal that aims to function as a complementation vehicle of DepED and CHED through information dissemination of updates on major educational concerns in the country affecting Teacher Education Programs such as the K to12 curriculum development, the discussion and debate on the use of the mother tongue in instruction through the advocacy of the MTB-MLE; research findings related to and which may affect institutional policies, curricular offerings, pedagogical approaches, and learning assessment among others.

This portal also serves as a repository of teaching practices, creative and innovative ideas, instructional materials, course syllabi, audio and visual resources, creative crafts for instruction, and the like coming not only from the members of the WVSU academic community but also from other TEIs who may wish to share their work. Through this collaboration, the network will be able to grow and extend more assistance to other TEIs in the country, thus improving the quality of teacher education programs.

Another unique feature of this Portal is the potential of having a Forum on a relevant issue of great merit. Contributors to the Forum can be facilitated by the Centex to develop the loop of ideas being generated.

In addition to this feature is the prospective of conducting a live chat session on a significant subject matter affecting the latest development in curriculum, assessment, projects, and licensure performance of teachers. WVSU as the Centex has assigned experts and specialists to be able to exchange ideas through the net which would generate more productive results.

User-friendly image maps are created to conveniently lead you to the content of the web portal of SOF-SONS.Net. This is an on-going project that requires resources both manpower and infrastructure solely devoted to its optimal operationalization. However, despite the limitations, WVSU CTE was able to construct a functional portal with its functional feature in conducting a licensure review for teachers.

There is so much to be done and we have taken the initial steps and accomplished something substantially concrete having three topnotch performers in the 2012 Licensure Examination for Teachers. As we continue this project, we have always accompanied it with capacity-building workshops and training not only our own WVSU online tutors but also other participants from other Teacher Education Institutions in the region. WVSU is spearheading the use of technology in education and for education.